The Cowtown races are some of my favorite events of the year. This is the first year I didn't do the kids 5K in 6 years and was a little bummed, but it allowed me to do the Half Marathon. I intended to run this Half as a supported training run, hence I didn't really train to RUN it. I had intended to just have a great day and no pressure like I did the Kids 5Ks. But, I've got a new coach for Ironman Louisville and he wanted me to race and work on a few things in particular. My new coach Roberto gave me a race strategy that worked beautifully. Here's a recap of my day:
12:30a Does anyone want some dogs? Don't they know I need to sleep?
1:30a Still not time to get up!
1:45a Still not time to get up - ugh!
3:45a Still not time to get up, but decided to go ahead and get up since the alarm was set for 4:00a
4:00a Planned to have between 400-500 cals before 2 hours before race (7:00a) and ended up with 440 cals: 1/c oatmeal, 1/2c fat free milk, 1/2c mixed berries
1/2 large bagel, 1/2T agave nectar, 1/2t butter
1L water
1 cup coffee w/soy milk
5:30 arrived at race site in plenty of time to walk over and find some of my friends
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| Mitchel, Mike, Lionel |
Less than TP for 1 mile as warm up
Mile 2-6 Low TP (zone 2)
Mile 7-9 High TP (zone 3)
Mile 10-end Race pace (zone 4)
Nutrition Race Strategy:
400-500 cal breakfast at least 2 hour before race
1 gel 5 min before race with water
300 cal during 1st hour of race (ended up 330 1st hr) with water at aid stations
250 cal during each additional hour (220 2nd hr, 0 after 2 hours) with water at aid stations
Don't carry water - use and adjust to what is on the course
This race was at a new venue so a new route and I was excited to run it. I'd run parts of the course already because of doing training runs with some of my NoName buddies running the marathon so I was familiar. It was 65 degrees w 90% humidity when the gun went off and when I finished it was 70 deg w/ 95% humidity. I was in corral 4 and spotted a 2:20 pace group and decided to see if I could run with them and stay in my zones.
My previous Half PR was over 3 hours so this was ambitious, but I've lost a lot of weight and have been working hard.
A mile into the run I'm feeling pretty good and the corrals helped spacing to compared to the other Half's I've done. Just past the mile marker we lost our pacer! She had to run to the bushes and we didn't see her again until about the 10 mi mark. Luckily she handed the sign off to another brash runner that was full of wit and wisdom and a pretty big ham. It was pretty apparent to myself that he was a very good runner and wasn't sure why he was in our little group. He was jumping over the cones and singing songs and telling jokes and yelling at people the whole route. I'm glad he led our group.
A few miles into the race our new pacer mentioned that he didn't have a watch and asked someone to call out the time. Another of our group called out that we were on 10:38 pace, though my Garmin was saying 10:43 pace. We needed to be on 10:40 pace to make 2:20. A couple of miles later he asked again and she said 10:41, but I was showing 10:45. A couple of miles later she called out 10:44 and I was showing 10:48/mi. I mentioned this to him and come to find out the person with the watch who we'd been following was using LAP time and not AVERAGE time like I was. He said no big deal we can make it up. Here again, this wasn't our original pacer and come to find out he wasn't even entered in the race. He just happened to know someone and wanted to come out and support them and couldn't find them so he just joined up with our little group. So we began picking up the pace and it was working just fine with my plan and HR zones.
The water stops are always crowded and I found out that our pacer didn't stop at at the water stops he just slowed down a little. I usually carry water for my races, but my new coach wanted me to use what was on the course and save my strength. I did carry a small bottle that I could carry with me so I could take my 5 minute pre-race gel and carried it with me until the first water station. As I expected it was under siege so I ran around and finished my little bottle like I'd got something at the aid station. At the 2nd water stop and tossed my empty bottle and got 2 cups of water and slowed to a walk so I got all of the water in my mouth instead of my shoes and was off again. No big deal. Well I looked up and my pacer was down the road. He hadn't stopped so I kind of sprinted to catch back up (just a fartlek workout :) so when the next water station was approaching I sprinted ahead of the group and tried to get water in a timely manner but there were a ton of people in front of the tables grabbing and spilling water. By the time I got 2 cups of water I looked up and my group was gone again. I sprinted to catch back up. For the remaining water stops, except the last stop I totally by passed and didn't get any water, I'd sprint ahead and go BEHIND the tables where the workers were getting water and I'd grab a couple before they ever made it to the table and that worked great. I didn't have to sprint to catch my group any more and I was even able to get a cup and close it off and give it to our fearless pacer. He was very appreciative.
Many in our group were complaining about the hills, but I didn't think they were really that bad. I'd been doing hill repeats once a week on some pretty steep inclines and tempo/fartleks on another day and usually a flat easy long run on the third day. As we were getting close to mile 9 there was a long incline ahead and we were at 10:41 pace so we'd made up some good ground and our pacer said he wanted to be 10:40 when we got to the top. Quite ambitious for the level of people in our group. Happy to say I was at 10:39 when I got to the top and that I'd actually made up time going up the long hill instead of leting it defeat me. I'd warned my pacer that at mile 10 I was going to try to pick up the pace and he wished me luck and he was fired up that I was on pace for a PR. I was able to get my pace down to 10:35 avg, but at mile 12 I got into a long incline that wasn't very steep, but was just at a bad spot in the race for me. I didn't walk, but slowed to catch my breath some. The last .25 of mile was great with both sides of the street lined with the crowd and I was able to sprint the finish to 2:19:44.
My biggest disappointment was not finding my NoName buddies after the race. Overall, a great day and ended with a trip to the brunch buffet at Blue Mesa followed by a nap - priceless!
1 comment:
It's just amazing how knowledge and scientific approach to training can do to you. It ain't cookie-cutter training anymore!
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